Progress

Is she able to revive because she's a saintess, or is she a saintess because she can revive? I don't know which came first, but in any case, this Saintess-sama can revive. Three days have passed since we discovered that fact, and during that time, Saintess-sama has been challenging the dungeon once a day, dying and returning, then staying in the suite.

Her daily DP drops by ten percent right after she dies, and then returns to 250 DP after a while. We get about 1,500 DP each time she dies. I have no idea what mechanism is behind this, but the effect looks the same as Feni the phoenix's. Maybe it's some kind of skill?

Also, despite being a B-rank adventurer, she's dying to simple traps way too easily. Though it seems she doesn't fall for the same trap twice…

"The world is managed by the Light God. Dungeons are things created by demons to interfere with the Light God's management. Therefore, dungeons must be destroyed. So, will you give me the right to destroy the Dungeon Core?"

"No."

And then, during her recovery time when she had nothing to do, Saintess-sama came to visit.

Having to deal with her every single time is extremely annoying. This woman is definitely my worst enemy. Also, since I've set it up so she contacts me through the deputy village chief, Wozuma gets dragged along too.

"Haah… even though I've explained this much to you…"

"The dungeon is under national management. Oh, right, please get permission from the guild head of the Adventurer Guild as well."

"… That's unreasonable. The dungeon is in this village, so it's your property as the village chief!"

No it's not. Well, it actually is mine, but still. I decided to change the subject.

"By the way, you're not with your attendant. Why is that?"

"It's better for him not to be with me. If I had to say why, it's for safety."

"Oh? Even though you're Saintess-sama… are you safer alone as a woman?"

"Yes, he carries a simple altar. As you know, saintesses can revive any number of times as long as there's an altar."

As I know, she says. I wonder if it's well-known in the Holy Kingdom.

So there's such a thing as an altar that serves as a safe zone where saintesses can revive safely.

"This is the first I've heard of it. Wozuma, did you know?"

"No, this is my first time hearing it as well… Saintess-sama, let's pretend I didn't hear that."

"… Oh my, excuse me. It's common knowledge in the Holy Kingdom, you see, about me."

I don't know about that. Even so, she just casually revealed the secret of her immortality. Is she actually probing us in return?

Or is it really common knowledge in the Holy Kingdom and she's just genuinely careless…? Looking at how Saintess-sama has acted so far, she does seem careless, but I can't rule out the possibility that it's an act. Otherwise, she's just too much of an airhead.

The fact that she's persistently trying to get permission from me specifically—she might have seen through me being the Dungeon Master… Yeah, that's a scary thought. It's scary that I can't say it's impossible.

But if Saintess-sama is truly an airhead, then all my wariness would be completely off the mark… Damn, what a troublesome enemy.

On top of that, she keeps asking me to hand over the Dungeon Core's destruction rights either directly or indirectly, which is extremely nerve-wracking. The deputy village chief Wozuma won't participate in the conversation unless I specifically bring him in. Share this burden with me, will you? I'd like to leave about a hundred percent to you.

After that, we chatted for about an hour while I was careful not to let her get any leverage, and then Saintess-sama left.

… That's how much of my sleep time was cut into. I'm going to ramp up the killing intent on the traps for Saintess-sama. She'll revive anyway.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Now then, setting the saintess aside, let's talk about the black wolf, Rin. I've been sending messenger golems with various "seasonings" for it to eat several times now.

Today, I decided to test again what seemed most likely to be its weakness.

"Hey, Rin. I came to visit."

"… Yaaawn, what, it's Kehma. You're here again. What's the flavor today? Can I bite?"

"Yeah, go ahead with the right arm for now."

I held out the golem's right arm. Chomp—Rin bit it off. There's no longer any hesitation or restraint. I can poison it as much as I want, though it doesn't really work anyway.

As it crunched and chewed, Rin grimaced and spat out the golem arm pieces. And also the salt that I had stuffed plenty of into the arm as today's seasoning.

"Mguh?! Ptoo ptoo!"

"Oh? What's wrong, Rin? Didn't taste good?"

"It's the worst! How can you, make something, this disgusting… You can go home, for today."

"Don't say that, let's talk more. Some weird person's been coming around lately and I'm stressed out."

"I-I see… Stressed out, so that's why, it tastes, this weird…? Hmm."

Salt. Yes, Rin's weakness is salt. Hydrochloric acid seemed like it would be more effective, but apparently salt tastes worse. It said hydrochloric acid was a bit tingly but actually pretty good.

Is it just because it's salt, or is there some holy attribute to it? Like purifying salt or something. Maybe it's also like pouring salt on a slug—the moisture gets drawn out.

In any case, of all the various things I tried, the only one Rin clearly said was "too disgusting to eat" was salt. When I made it eat a whole body stuffed with salt, it writhed around and vomited. And today, just one arm was enough for this reaction.

Alright, let's mass-produce anti-Rin iron equipment with rock salt inside.

"Hey, Kehma. I think you're, pretty much, my underling, by now. Right?"

"Hm? Is that so?"

"That's right. You, offer food, to me. So you're, my underling."

I see, when she puts it that way, I have been going to get eaten every day.

Wait, could this mean… did I succeed in taming it?

"Plus, even though, it's disgusting, you don't skimp, on flavoring variety. You're a good guy."

"Glad to hear my efforts are appreciated."

"So, to make sure, you don't get, any more disgusting… I'll help, relieve your, stress."

"Really?! That's great!"

Though half of my current stress is because of Rin, you know.

… Should I try asking it to move out of this room? I've been thinking of an excuse to get it to move as peacefully as possible. Now is the time to use that excuse!

"Ah, actually, having Rin in this room is pretty stressful too."

"Wha?! It's, my fault?!"

"That's right. Actually, this place… is the toilet, you see? With Rin here all the time, I can't, you know…"

"Wait, hold on. T-this place, is a toilet? That's… um, do golems, even use, the toilet?"

Oh good. Since Rin itself doesn't seem to need to relieve itself, there was a possibility it wouldn't understand.

"That's right… It's embarrassing, but want me to actually show you?"

"What?! W-wait, you shouldn't, show people, that kind of thing!"

"No no, you wouldn't believe that a golem needs to use the toilet without seeing it, right? Just wait a moment, I'll do it now… Hngh!"

I made the messenger golem squat and sent a light magic tool to where Rin couldn't see.

Then I let it drop to the floor with a thud as it glowed.

"Phew, that's better. So then, like this…"

"Wha—?!"

I picked up the light magic tool and brought it to the dummy core, then retrieved it… From Rin's perspective, it must have looked like the golem's excrement was being absorbed into the dummy core.

There, it's dirty, right? So you definitely shouldn't eat this, got it? That was the deterrent.

Then, a message came in from Rokuko, who had retrieved the glowing magic tool in the Master Room.

"Hey, Kehma… even if it's just a dummy core, treating a Dungeon Core like that makes me feel terrible."

"It can't be helped. Deal with it."

I personally think this is awful too. But it wouldn't be effective unless it was something this awful.

"… G-got it. I'll leave, this room… But Kehma, your, uh, poop, it glows, and is warm?"

"That's right, and it's sticky too. Want one? I was nervous doing it in front of someone, so there's still more left in my stomach…"

"No, I'm good. I don't want it… But, hmm. Is there, a room, about this warm?"

"Hm? If that's all you need, I'll warm up another room to about the same temperature. Wait a moment."

"W-wait! You're not going to, smear poop, all over the room, right?!"

Don't say such disgusting things. Well, I understand your concern though.

But you know, since you swallow things whole, you're also eating the excrement along with it, right? I won't say that though.

"I won't. I'm just adjusting the temperature. Leave it to me."

"I see. Good then."

… I succeeded in relocating Rin.

I couldn't help but pump my fist through the messenger golem.